RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO May 1st 2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is up 0.28%, paring gains by just a few points after UK manufacturing PMI for April comes in at 50.5, vs expectations for a reading of 52.0. Lloyds Banking Group is the still the best performer, after its 1Q results.

Lloyds was a strong performer early on after saying that pre-tax profits in the first quarter came in at £288m compared to a massive loss of £3.47bn in the first three months of last year. Nevertheless, Lloyds said it had seen an increase in the volume of complaints being received following the PPI mis-selling scandal.

Cigarette producer Imperial Tobacco rose after beating market expectations both in terms of operating profits and earnings per share in its first half as the its biggest brand, Gauloises Blondes, produced significant growth.

Heading the other way was integrated oil major BP after underlying replacement cost profit was down in the first quarter, with the downstream business primarily responsible for the fall-off. Underlying replacement cost profit after tax in the three months to the end of March came in at $4,799m, down from $5,504m in the first quarter of 2011.

Man Group, the hedge fund manager which has seen its share price plummet over the last two months, continued to fall despite reporting a slight increase in funds under management (FuM) in the first quarter. "After a strong start to the year, markets came back under pressure in March and drove greater dispersion in investment performance across our industry," said Chief Executive Peter Clarke.

Engineering and project management company AMEC was in demand after being awarded a topsides design contract by BP for the Mad Dog Phase Two deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico.

Switzerland-headquartered mining giant Xstrata reported a mixed first-quarter production report but assured that all of its major projects continue to make good progress and remain on schedule.

THE FTSE 100             @ 10:15         Up        16     @      5,754 THE DOW JONES            closed          Down      14     @     13213 THE NASDAQ               closed          Down      22     @      3046

Exchange Rates

GBP – USD       @      10:15                 1.6220 GBP - EURO     @      10:15                 1.2223